Thanks @LucidVision, that was enlightening and you're making a ton of sense.
Indeed acceleration could play the role of an aggressive 1-drop, although it's a bit more volatile (since it doesn't do anything on its own). However it's perfectly possible to play all-in aggro today, making use of those very powerful 2-4 drops to win matches against pretty much any deck/archetype in the cube. So it's mainly a style/design choice.
A final point I want to make is that playing a mother, inspector or Esper Sentinel on turn 1 is really not what an aggressive deck wants to be doing. I mean, stalling in the early game and then winning with powerful higher drops is a fine and perfectly valid game plan, but it shouldn't be called aggro, because that term means something else.
Food for thought! Thanks again for the insights Lucid & Steve_man.
Broadside Bombardiers / Gut would be the main reason for Thraben Inspector / Novice Inspector. Versatility in general since white generally has the highest critical mass of artifacts / artifact tokens for artifact decks. A lot of artifact shells can lean aggressive now, especially with things like Urza’s Saga / Nettlecyst / Legion Extuder / Galvanic Blast / etc. Shrapnel Blast is also much more consistent these days too.
Ok, then it's probably not relevant for my cube. We don't run Urza's Saga, Legion Extruder, Galvanic Blast or Shrapnel Blast. We do run Bombardier and Gut, but neither card needs Inspectors to be great.
In my cube I’ve found availability and card flow to be more important to aggro than just raw damage output for 1-cmc creatures, since they’re easily killed / walled anyways. Finding your actual bombs / living longer to contest monarch / initiative / providing fodder to Bombardiers / Gut makes Thraben Inspectors much more useful than a mundane 2/1, not to mention their actual sources of card advantage and can be blinked / recurred for value. I’ve found Savannah Lion variants to be pretty extraneous at this point. They’re by far the least important aggro creatures to me, which makes them very cuttable since that’s they’re only job.
I was originally in the “Thraben Inspector is a filler card” camp for a long time, but it’s really a great glue card in any white deck. In the 300 drafts of my cube since the release of NEO (early 2021), Thraben Inspector is currently the third most represented white card in my 3-0 archive, making it quite ubiquitous.
I hear what you're saying, although there seems to be a kind of vocabulary disconnect, as what you are describing definitely isn't aggro in my book, I call that midrange. Cutting purely aggro 1-drops in favor of 1-drops which can work in aggressive midrange and other decks as well certainly is a defensible design choice.
Thanks for the feedback in any case. More points of view from other people still welcome
The combination of drawing cards and contributing to artifact critical mass makes things like Esper Sentinel / Thraben Inspector / Novice Inspector much better than pretty much any Savannah Lions variant in white, IMO. I've swapped out all my white Savannah Lions variants except for Kytheon in favor of Esper Sentinel / Mother of Runes / Giver of Runes / Thraben Inspector / Novice Inspector and haven't looked back. 2-4 cmc creatures are so cracked these days that aggro really doesn't need most of its Savannah Lion variants anymore.
How is artifact critical mass relevant for an aggro deck?
Drawing cards is always nice, but I'm not going to slow down my aggro deck in order to do it (which rules Thraben Inspector right out for aggro). Heck, I think it's too slow for midrange decks, too - I could see Sentinel and the Inspectors for control though.
I see this card in many lists these days, and I still have a hard time understanding why. The reactions in this thread were quite tentative, so clearly the card tested better than most people expected. Any more testimonies?
It hasn't come up yet in our drafts but I think it's a great cube card. There are so many tokens around, and squad makes this card have an extremely high ceiling. A token copy generated through the squad ability is a fantastic target for populate effects, too
The easiest way to flip him is probably increasing his power, as Goodking mentioned earlier. Plenty of ways to do that. Fun to sneak a 'life gain matters' card into the cube this way by the way
EDIT: just noticed I used the word 'way' four times in three short sentences. That's clearly, ahem... way too much.
I think this does a lot for the mana investment. Having lifelink + extort should make this flip easily, although I could see situations where you'd maybe prefer it didn't. I like this one best of the cycle, after the insanity that is Ajani obviously.
I find Braids to still be an all-star in our environment, and Smallpox as well. I wouldn't want to cube without them. Smokestack has become slow, but it will absolutely still win games in the right deck.
As for Animation Module, I don't think it makes the cut even if you want to support +1/+1 counters; it's too slow and mana-intensive for my tastes.
Interesting list. I would never consider some of these cards for my own list. kami of whispered hopes seems terrible as a 3 mana 1/1 dork compared to having enough density of this effect with hardened scales and ozolith, the shattered spire. Would rather play winding constrictor if you want more and is probably a much better option than your muticoloured cards.
Securitron squadron from your list another great card that combos with animation module giving you a 2/2 servo for every 1 mana spent.
The key for animation module is that it comes down on turn one and if you have better things to do with your mana you dont need to use it. But there are lots of times where you have a spare mana laying around that you can get some value out of or you can "go off" if you have the right pieces in place. In a dedicated counters deck it is much more mana efficient at making artifact tokens than retrofitter foundry which this actually pairs decently with.
Indeed the kami is the one I'm most iffy about. I figured it being a creature is still more important than all other aspects of the card, with stuff like GSZ, Survival and other synergies green has with creatures which put it ahead of Scales for me, but I could be wrong. With just a single effect adding a +1/+1 counter, it becomes a 3/3 and a respectable mana elf. We'll see how it plays... I think Winding Constrictor and Corpsejack Menace are of a similar power level, Constrictor is cheaper but its effect is less explosive and it's more fragile. Matter of taste probably. My main difficulty is freeing up a precious multi-color slot for this kind of role player.
On topic: yeah, the token creating ability can be quite nice, although usually I'm not a big fan of such mana taxing effects. Could be good though. The card is quite narrow though, only being playable in decks with enough +1/+1 counter shenanigans, and not even being a role player in such a deck. I'm afraid it would just end up in sideboards a lot. I do like my repeatable token creators though
We're actually just testing a +1/+1 counters matters archetype in our cube. It's supported most heavily in green and white, with some secondary support in blue and black. There are cards putting +1/+1 counters on other creatures, and cards which increase the number of counters already there (mostly proliferate but some other tricks). It's a bit OT so I'll spoiler it for those interested.
There are more multicolor options like Master Biomancer, Corpsejack Menace and Good-Fortune Unicorn.
Proliferate is nice because it not only bolsters +1/+1 counter strategies, but is also just good with planeswalkers.
As for Animation Module, I don't think it makes the cut even if you want to support +1/+1 counters; it's too slow and mana-intensive for my tastes.
Another point to remember is that effects like [land]cycling and channel also say 'discard', not to mention the many looting and rummaging effects these days. Discarding happens a lot during typical magic games even without actively forcing your opponent to discard.
In fact we're just testing The Raven Man for this very reason. Hostile Investigator goes quite well with this, but... it's really tough to fit in another 4-drop.
Getting the free card out of the Hideaway seems pretty easy to achieve, especially since the activated ability helps you do it. IDK but this looks pretty powerful to me, especially for 1W. Going to give it a test.
Good card, but not sure I'll find room for it. I think I like Primaris Eliminator better than this, it doesn't have the cheap mode but its sweep effect is one-sided which is huge, and it can also snipe a single big target with its other mode.
Indeed acceleration could play the role of an aggressive 1-drop, although it's a bit more volatile (since it doesn't do anything on its own). However it's perfectly possible to play all-in aggro today, making use of those very powerful 2-4 drops to win matches against pretty much any deck/archetype in the cube. So it's mainly a style/design choice.
A final point I want to make is that playing a mother, inspector or Esper Sentinel on turn 1 is really not what an aggressive deck wants to be doing. I mean, stalling in the early game and then winning with powerful higher drops is a fine and perfectly valid game plan, but it shouldn't be called aggro, because that term means something else.
Food for thought! Thanks again for the insights Lucid & Steve_man.
Ok, then it's probably not relevant for my cube. We don't run Urza's Saga, Legion Extruder, Galvanic Blast or Shrapnel Blast. We do run Bombardier and Gut, but neither card needs Inspectors to be great.
I hear what you're saying, although there seems to be a kind of vocabulary disconnect, as what you are describing definitely isn't aggro in my book, I call that midrange. Cutting purely aggro 1-drops in favor of 1-drops which can work in aggressive midrange and other decks as well certainly is a defensible design choice.
Thanks for the feedback in any case. More points of view from other people still welcome
How is artifact critical mass relevant for an aggro deck?
Drawing cards is always nice, but I'm not going to slow down my aggro deck in order to do it (which rules Thraben Inspector right out for aggro). Heck, I think it's too slow for midrange decks, too - I could see Sentinel and the Inspectors for control though.
EDIT: just noticed I used the word 'way' four times in three short sentences. That's clearly, ahem... way too much.
White:
Green:
Blue:
Thrummingbird
Flux Channeler
Black:
Drana, Liberator of Malakir
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Colorless:
Metallic Mimic
Recon Craft Theta
Multicolor:
Lonis, Genetics Expert
Elder Arthur Maxson
There are more multicolor options like Master Biomancer, Corpsejack Menace and Good-Fortune Unicorn.
Proliferate is nice because it not only bolsters +1/+1 counter strategies, but is also just good with planeswalkers.
In fact we're just testing The Raven Man for this very reason. Hostile Investigator goes quite well with this, but... it's really tough to fit in another 4-drop.